October 2010 MMA News Archive - Page 9

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As expected, Dustin Hazelett is dropping from Welterweight to Lightweight and his first fight at Lightweight will come at UFC 124. UFC officials have confirmed that Hazelett will face Mark Bocek at the event. It's not known if the fight will be a prelim or PPV fight.

With Brian Bowles now off WEC 52 due to injury, Joseph Benavidez has been tapped as the replacement and will face Wagnney Fabiano. Bowles is off due to a foot injury. The Bowles-Fabiano fight is expected to remain as one of the night's TV fights.

Among others, and he says expect to hear something in the next 4 weeks. "One thing I can tell you is all these guys … Alistair, Fedor, Fabricio, Josh Barnett, ‘Bigfoot’ (Antonio Silva), (Sergei) Kharitonov, Andrei Arlovski, Brett Rogers, all those guys are all going to fight each other in 2011. We’re not going to hold anything back. You’re going to see these guys fight the toughest guys because really, if you’re a heavyweight, there are no easy fights in Strikeforce. It’s arguably the best heavyweight division in the world, and I think Josh Barnett said it best. The competition is here. He signed with us because he wants to fight all those guys. We’re going to put those fights together, and I think the fans are going to love it."

Bloody Elbow has confirmed rumors that current DEEP middleweight champion, Riki Fukuda (17-4), has signed with the UFC. More information on Fukuda's debut date and opponent will be available in the near future.

According to sources close to the fight, the other half of the "Miller Time" doubleheader at UFC 124 will feature Jim Miller taking on fast-rising prospect Charles Oliveira. While the UFC has made no announcement about the bout, it's like that Miller vs. Oliveira will make the televised broadcast of the UFC 124 show in some capacity. Jim's brother Dan also is scheduled for 124, he'll face Joe Doerksen.

According to Korean news site mfight.co.kr:
Dong Hyun Kim will be fighting at January 1, 2011 at the MGM Arena in Las Vegas’ UFC 125 against Nate Diaz.
Kim Dong Hyun: "The most important thing for my next fight is to try to win in exciting fashion with a KO or submission finish."

The New York Post reported that Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, has contributed $74,000 to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo.
S.C. Michaelson commented:
As you know, MMA is in the middle of a 5-round war with the NY State Legislature over sanctioning of MMA. Their biggest opponent is Bob Reilly (who I have discussed in the past) who also has the ear of the Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (who is the key to keeping the bill from going to vote).
Current Governor David Paterson is a strong proponent for MMA but that has not helped the cause as it is still illegal. However Paterson was not elected and only ascended to the Governorship after David Spitzer resigned. Andrew Cuomo is a much more popular figure in the state of New York and thus could have more influence. According to the Post, Cuomo has not officially stated his position on the legalization of MMA. I'm sure that Zuffa has some knowledge of his position as they donated a substantial sum.

A welterweight bout between Ricardo Almeida (12-4 MMA, 5-4 UFC) and Canadian T.J. Grant (16-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC) is being finalized for December's UFC 124 event.
Sources close to the event today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that bout agreements have been distributed and are in the process of being finalized. Showdown.ca first reported the fight.
UFC 124 takes place Dec. 11 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
The night's main card airs on pay-per-view, though it's unclear if Almeida vs. Grant is part of the broadcast.

Middleweights Jason MacDonald (24-14 MMA, 5-6 UFC) and Rafael Natal (12-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) have been penciled in for a meeting at UFC 124.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the impending matchup with sources close to the event, who said verbal agreements are in place and contracts are on the way.
Natal's management, Dominance MMA, confirmed the fight earlier today via Twitter.

An undisclosed injury has forced former World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Brian Bowles (8-1 MMA, 5-1 WEC) out of his WEC 52 bout with Wagnney Fabiano (14-2 MMA, 4-1 WEC), and a search is underway for a replacement.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the card change with sources close to the event.
WEC 52 takes place Nov. 11 at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, and Bowles vs. Fabiano tentatively was slotted for the night's Versus-televised main card.

Megumi Fujii gets her long-awaited opportunity to win a championship at Bellator 34 on Oct. 28.
The promotion confirmed the date of the undefeated star's matchup with Zoila Frausto on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old Fujii is 22-0 in a sterling career, including 18 wins by way of submission, and she's also considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, yet she's never captured an MMA championship.
In 2008, she was scheduled to fight Ana Michelle Tavares in the finals of the 2008 Smackgirl World Remix Tournament, but the promotion folded and the finals never happened.

The Nevada state athletic commission on Tuesday slightly modified its drug testing policy, requiring additional analysis to blood tests that may indicate use of performance-enhancing drugs.
During a meeting on the subject, NSAC moved to require hemoglobin and hematocrit tests, which can indicate blood doping or PED use. Fighters are already required to submit to annual blood tests for licensing with a focus on infectious diseases.
The hemoglobin and hematocrit tests would essentially test blood for for unusual levels of red blood cell percentages. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine's National Institute of Health, a normal test for men is between 40.7 and 50.3 percent while for women it's 36.1 to 44.3 percent.

According to sources close to him, Jason Brilz is now off UFC 122 in Germany due to a back injury. He was to have faced Vladimir Matyushenko. Chute Boxe standout and Brazilian light heavyweight Alexandre Ferreira, who has now signed a multi-fight deal with UFC according to the TATAME, is the replacement. Ferreira is 18-6 career and mainly competes in World Vale Tudo Championships, an old-school style promotion in Brazil.

Tyron Woodley is a man with a double life.
By day, he's an anonymous full-time student chasing a Master's degree in public administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. By night, he is an undefeated rising star in the Strikeforce welterweight division.
It's a scenario that inevitably lends itself to the occasional distraction.
"Sometimes I'm in class thinking, 'I'm ready to go. I've been here for three hours and I need to get out of here,'" he said. "My classmates are debating public policy or budget reform or insurance issues, and all I'm thinking about is punching somebody in the face."
Yet the 28-year-old Woodley is equally passionate about both of his goals with the same hope of inspiring the younger generation.

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon in Lodi, Calif., and Nick Diaz isn't taking any steps backwards. Not today. For five rounds of boxing, forward seems to be the only direction the Strikeforce welterweight champion knows. It doesn't matter what you're throwing at him. He's going head first, full speed ahead until you make him stop or kill yourself trying.
"Straight down the middle, that's it!" shouts Diaz's boxing coach, Richard Perez.
With his snow-white hair and gregarious disposition, Perez is a little like Santa Claus in a sleeveless t-shirt. He leans against the cage and shouts more encouragement than instruction as Diaz bulls his way forward against a series of smaller, quicker sparring partners. They come bouncing in and go dragging out in rotating shifts. Perez tells them to circle. That's what "this guy" will do, he says.